Last night at Coe started off well and got better as the evening went
on.... Around 1 Am, the fog completely covered SJ, Gilroy and Hollister. We
could see the fog pouring into the valley between us and Fremont peak. I
checked the magnitude using Finnish triangles (like I always do) and found
that at 11pm my group counted it at mag 5.9. Ehh, good sky. Around 12:30, it
darkened to 6.2. hmmm, thats great.. At 3 Am it had darkened to a lovely
6.5!!!! There was a breeze but I was on the Eastern side of the lot, using
my truck as a wind shield and with double layers I was cozy. Not being the
marathon type, I worked Deep map 600 through Leo again then of course Virgo,
Uma, Hercules. Cygnus showed off the Veil and the Crescent nebulas as well
as the Albireo double. I took at M4 in Scorpio. My "fresh out of the shop"
15" dob preformed flawlessly and gave wonderful images of the popular
clusters, galaxies and nebula. Besides being wowed by M51 and its complete
set of spiral arms, I used my new H/beta filter with a 13 Nagler and was
able to just make out the Horsehead! I has heard that it was strictly a
"photographic" object.... Ya right. It's dark black mushroom like shape
just stood out against the brighter background. Wow! That was my first time
seeing it and of course I shared the view with Carl Ching, Dan Kaeo and Mike
(last name? sorry:-) Later Mike and I checked out the cluster of galaxies
around and near NGC 5350. What a beautiful region of the sky. Sky Commander
was VERY accurate all night in every direction! I was shocked to hear that
4:30 Am was upon us and the night is almost over. That was the most fun I've
had at Coe and the darkest I've seen it get. Glad I was there. Now, there
seemed to be a few rude folks who are uninformed regarding the do's and
don'ts of joining a star party. Those of you who raced in or out of the lot
after dark with your headlights blazing, stirring up dust or those who felt
it necessary to play your "mind expanding music" loudly, please re-read the
following link. HYPERLINK